Clickbait titles! I’m sure you’ve seen them. They’re EVERYWHERE on YouTube and TikTok. A lot of websites and article directories use them as well.

Some classic examples of clickbait titles include “You won’t believe…” and “His life was ruined after…”.

Clickbait titles are created to immediately capture the reader’s attention and lure them into reading the content based on an intense curiosity from the marketable title implementation.

In most cases, creating a clickbait title is wrong and often unethical. This is because many people who do it don’t deliver what is expected from the title.

But you can use clickbait titles if you manage them correctly and provide valuable and genuine content that is promised in the title.

Clickbait Titles Need to Deliver on Your Posts

If you plan to use a clickbait title on your blog posts, you need to deliver what the title is saying.

An example is this same blog post.

My title is “Clickbait Titles will do this to your Blog,” which is 100% a clickbait title statement.

But I am delivering what the title is saying by showing you the difference between unethical and ethical clickbait title creation and how you can use it to benefit your blog.

So, when you’re crafting your blog title and want to have clickbait integrated into it, you need to make sure you deliver what you’re telling your readers that they will see.

If you don’t, you might be seen as unethical or a scammer, and you’ll lose readers.

Two Kinds of Clickbait Titles for Blogging

I recommend focusing on two types of clickbait titles when using this strategy for your blogging efforts.

Fear-based and relief-based!

Fear-based clickbait consists of striking a worried or fearful emotion into the reader based on the title. So, if I wrote a blog post on this blog called “Doing this will get your blog banned from Google,” it is created to strike the fear of getting a blog banned from Google. The clickbait portion is “Doing this,” which sends a message that there are things you can do to get banned (fear-based strategy) from Google. It is just crucial that you deliver what the title suggests. So, it would be appropriate to write an article about Black Hat SEO and how it can destroy your blog on Google Search.

Relief-based clickbait titles involve relieving the reader from a problem. A great example on this blog would be something like “10 Easy to Use Blog Keyword Research Tools that Boosts SEO”. The relief portion is the word “Easy,” The clickbait would be “Boosts SEO.” As I stated above, I would need to make sure I wrote a genuine article about what the title depicts.

It’s good to write titles about controversial issues, hot topics, and what is trending in the niche or industry of what your blog is about.

Unethical Clickbait Titles Will DESTROY Your Blog

This is a true statement.

We learn this case from YouTube. A famous creator with many subscribers and viewers likely creates clickbait titles for each video they produce. And they get millions of views in the process.

A not-so-known creator does the same thing and gets minimal views.

Why the difference?

The famous creator gets millions of views because they’re already established with many subscribers and viewers. They can title their videos any way they wish and would still get the majority of those views.

The unknown creator is likely using the title strategy to get more views and not deliver what the title promises.

People are smart, too!

They notice when creators do this. And it usually turns them off.

Doing the same on your blog to get a view and not deliver will result in the same expectation and demise. Don’t do it – it’s not worth it.

A Safe Way of Using Clickbait

Clickbait title strategies can work for blogs. And when they work, they can work and deliver outstanding results.

But it’s risky to go with a lot of the classic titles that don’t give a direct reason why they should read the blog post. This is because clickbait is used so much that it annoys more people than it pleases.

Instead, put what they will read on the blog but with a clickbait trigger word that sparks the reader’s fear or resolution/relief.

I also highly recommend using numbered posts. Out of all the post-types I write about, numbered posts perfect the best. Adding clickbait trigger words like “Easy” or “Worst” will help gain extra attention to the title.

Just make sure you deliver when using clickbait titles on your blog!